Over 15 aircraft, a café, gift shop and outstanding exhibits- all housed in a 70 year old hangar. Welcome to history housing history.

Martin AM-1 Mauler

Designed to combine both the bombing and torpedo functions previously performed by several aircraft in the postwar Navy, the AM-1 Martin Mauler was the only single-engine production aircraft powered by the massive 3,000 hp Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major radial, air-cooled engine. Production models were powered by the more reliable R-3350 engine. The Mauler on display is powered by the R-4360 Wasp Major engine. A prodigious weightlifter, it demonstrated a maximum useful ordnance load of 10,689 lbs. Production orders were placed in January 1945 for 750 of the AM-1 model and by 1949 several operational units were flying the AM-1. Though outstanding, only 151 were completed and production was terminated in October, 1949 in favor of the more advanced Douglas AD Skyraider after only 151 Maulers were produced.

The museum’s Mauler is one of only four surviving from an original production of 151. It was the 18th Mauler built and served at Jacksonville, St. Louis and Norfolk Naval Air Stations before being retired in 1955. Thereafter, it was transferred to the Army’s Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland and used for weapons testing. Donated to the Bradley Air Museum in Connecticut in 1979, it was acquired by the museum in 1990.